Disaster-resilient homes
Fire-Resilient Building, Shown in Motion
Hartelust Construction Company builds disaster-resilient homes using Nudura ICF (insulated concrete forms). These videos use computer models to show what could change when a wind-driven wildfire reaches a neighborhood of ICF homes, with noncombustible interior walls and roof framing, instead of conventional wood-frame homes. These models illustrate the benefits that ICF home construction can provide to the homeowner, their community and first responders during disasters.
Watch a recent Southern California wildfire replayed side by side, then a hypothetical fire on a second neighborhood. Every video is a modeled simulation, so please read the note below before you watch.
What the videos compare
Each video runs the same fire, wind, timing and random draws twice, changing only how the homes are built.
Wood-frame home
Conventional wood-frame construction, as built in the actual neighborhood (or “current construction” in the Palos Verdes videos).
ICF home
ICF exterior walls, light-gauge steel (noncombustible) interior walls, and noncombustible roof and floor framing.
In both cases the roof covering, vents, eaves and other hardening are the same. Numbers shown are medians across many randomized model runs; ranges are run-to-run spread, not confidence intervals.
The simulations
Filter by topic, or switch to vertical cuts sized for phones and social media. Videos have no sound, load only when you press play, and can be downloaded.
Showing 5 of 5 videos.
Palisades Fire: Wind-Driven Embers, Modeled ICF Community
Same fire, now with winds and embers modeled. The wood-built community is first fitted to the actual fire, and the model attributes most of its losses to fire spreading from house to house. The ICF community (ICF walls, noncombustible interior and roof/floor framing) then faces the same wind, fire front and random draws, with no firefighting. In the model, that house-to-house chain reaction does not get started.
Illustrative model, not an agency analysis. Survivability is based on previous mathematical models predicting a 70-90% survivability rate for ICF homes under like fire conditions. Here survival is a model output that is compared against that range, not an input. Results widen under stress tests: survival falls to about 73.8% when worst-case assumptions are combined.
Palisades Fire: ICF Community With and Without Firefighting
Left: the modeled ICF community with no firefighting. Right: the same fire and the same random draws, plus the engine ramp-up, hydrant and water-tank failures, and aircraft grounding that were actually reported by LAFD, FSRI and CAL FIRE.
Survivability is based on previous mathematical models predicting a 70-90% survivability rate for ICF homes under like fire conditions. Engines on scene are estimated from assignment times plus assumed travel lags, and the result assumes crews can reach burning homes within about 45 minutes. Illustrative only.
Palisades Evacuation: Roads With Actual Homes vs. a Modeled ICF Rebuild
Simulated traffic, blocked roads, abandoned vehicles and ember storms over roads during the evacuation. Both panels use the same fire, warnings, orders and departure behavior. Only what burning homes add (embers, smoke, radiant heat and debris) differs.
Early gridlock on Palisades Dr and Sunset is the same in both cases, and clearance times are driven by when orders were issued, not by building material. The ICF case still shows abandoned vehicles (model median 443 vs. 624).
Hypothetical Palos Verdes Peninsula Wildfire: Current Homes vs. 50% ICF
A hypothetical scenario: a wind-driven fire starting at the north edge of Rolling Hills, driven by the wind record from the January 2025 Palisades Fire, across 18,779 homes on the Peninsula. Left: current wood-frame construction. Right: half of all homes (randomly assigned) built as ICF with steel interior and noncombustible roof/floor framing, with the same roof covering, vents, eaves and hardening.
The wood homes in the 50% case also fared better (median 161 destroyed vs. 924), because they have fewer burning neighbors.
Hypothetical scenario: illustrative model transferred from the Palisades calibration, not a prediction or agency analysis.
Hypothetical Palos Verdes Evacuation: Fewer Road Closures With 50% ICF
The same hypothetical fire, with the same warnings, orders and departures in both panels. Vehicles leave at the same pace either way. What changes is how much road is closed by fire, heat, debris or downed lines from burning homes.
This is fewer road closures, not faster evacuation. Clearance is identical (95% of departing vehicles out by 8:08 PM on the scenario clock in both), and total vehicle delay did not improve (4,199 vs. 4,495 vehicle-hours, within run-to-run variability).
Hypothetical scenario: illustrative model transferred from the Palisades calibration, not a prediction or agency analysis.
Where the data comes from
The Palisades videos draw on public records; the models and their assumptions are described in the notes for each video.
- CAL FIRE damage inspection (DINS) data for 9,914 residential structures
- NOAA satellite fire detections (HMS) for approximate fire-arrival timing
- NOAA HRRR wind analyses, checked against airport weather stations
- LAFD and LAPD after-action reviews, the LA County (McChrystal Group) review, and the FSRI/UL timeline for evacuation, engine and water-system events
- OpenStreetMap roads (Palisades); LA County street centerlines, LANDFIRE fuels and county parcel and building data (Palos Verdes)
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